PM: Tan Son Nhat airport to be expanded south

The Hanoitimes - Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc today decided to expand the country`s largest airport to the south with an additional passenger terminal.

The decision follows the proposals of ADPi, the French consultancy company hired by Vietnam’s transport ministry. Under the proposal, a new terminal with the capacity of 20 million passengers would be built at the southern end of the airport. It would cover an area of 200,000 square meters and cost around VND18 trillion (US$820 million).

Illustrative photo

As explained by the Prime Minister, adding the passenger terminal to the south would help decrease the area of land to be revoked with shorter intervals between terminals, hence ease the construction's cost and duration. Instead, following the proposal of expanding to the south, the expansion's cost would be duplicated up to VND36 trillion. Hence, the golf course along with an area of 16 hectares in the north, controlled by Ministry of Defense would be used for supplement constructions, like sites for goods storage, plan repair, logistic since 2025.Besides, The Prime Minister believes the additional terminal to the south can level up the capacity of Tan Son Nhat airport to 60 million per year from 36 million in 2017.
“The plan has been discussed transparently with basic agreement from Ho Chi Minh authority”, pressed Phuc. “Moreover, it ensures the comprehensive effectiveness in using land, capital as well as issues of technology and safety”, he added.
Accordingly, Prime Minister assigned the Ministry of Transport (MoT) to direct ADPI in coordination with domestic expert group to compile the expansion plan. At the same time, MoT should seek the possible finance sources and finalize legal document to promptly start the construction, aiming to offload the Tan Son Nhat airport, which currenly sees the overload of 44%.
Tan Son Nhat now has two terminals serving 32 million passengers annually, well above its designed capacity of 25 million. It only has two runways that are sometimes closed due to flooding or lightning strikes. The airport also has space for only 57 aircraft at a time. Previously, in July 2017, Aeroports de Paris (ADP), parent company of ADPi, acquired 20% total shares of Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV), and became strategic partner of this corporation.